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Topic: Need more hop "nose" (Read 2464 times)

I have been tinkering to beef up the hop aroma of my IPAs lately- without results of my liking. I really want an overwhelming hop smell, but no matter what I do, there is very little variation.

I have used the same malt profile, usually a Columbus 60 min addition, and then altering one variable, either 1. use of a hop back or 2. dry hop time. Apart from the 60 min addition, I have removed 45 and 30 min additions from the standard recipe (usually something like Galaxy, Cascade or Zythos) and have instead put these additions at 10 and 5 mins. I use a hop back (1-2 oz of Cascades flowers) and dry hop with 2 oz per 10 gals for anywhere between 3 and 14 days. No real difference.

Any suggestions? Higher quantities of hops? Different timings? Different cultivars?

If you're doing 10 gal batches, I'd use at least 4oz of hops for dry hopping. 7-10 days is a good amount of time, up to 14 days. Remember after dry hopping the sooner you drink it the better for aroma.

More dry hops! I'm using 2-3 ounces in a 3 gallon batch right now and I think that's the sweet spot for me. I'd do at least 1/2 oz per gallon for a really hoppy aroma. Also, the fresher the beer the better for hop aroma.

One last thing, use the right glassware. I love the Sam Adams glasses for hoppy beer. I've done side-by-side comparisons with other types of glasses and the difference in aroma is night and day.

One last thing, use the right glassware. I love the Sam Adams glasses for hoppy beer. I've done side-by-side comparisons with other types of glasses and the difference in aroma is night and day.

+1 I don't care that it is not kosher in the beer culture; I often use a wine glass for drinking beer. It makes a difference. for me its all about flavor and aroma. Better glasses = better beer (read not the standard pint beer glass).

Add multiple dry hop additions. Drop hop with a couple ounces for a few days, pull them (assuming you're using a hop bag here) and add a fresh charge for a few more days. You can use different varieties to add complexity.

I like to dry hop with a minimum of 2oz/5 gal for a decent hop aroma. The more the better. I've been toying with the idea of racking the beer from the primary through my hop rocket and into the keg, then pull out the hops (muslin bag) from the rocket and soak in the keg for an additional week or two. This may strip more of the oils and resins from the hops than a static soak method.

Since I have it in front of me, some additional data points from Hieronymus' Hops book (pp 215-6):

Stone dry hops between 1/3 and 1.25 lbs per barrel (0.17 oz to 0.65 oz per gallon, 0.86 to about 3 oz per 5 gallons)

Lagunitas between 0.5 lbs and 1.5 lbs per barrel (1.3 and 3.9 oz per 5 gallons)

Brewers all seem to agree that more is not necessarily better. Marble Brewery (p. 28) got better flavor and aroma after they decreased their hopping schedule, and there is also a point of diminishing returns on the upper end: Rock Bottom saw very little difference between 1/2 lb and 1 lb per barrel (1.3 oz and 2.6 oz per 5 gallons), New Belgium found their ceiling to be 0.9 lbs per barrel (2.3 oz per 5 gallons). Then again, I would bet that the ceiling is different when you're working on a homebrew scale.

Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River is a believer in multiple dry hopping (put half in for three days, remove them and put other half in for three days) while Jeremy Marshall of Lagunitas Brewing thinks multiple additions is a waste of time. Firestone Walker does two additions at about 1 lb per barrel for Union Jack IPA, but strongly believes that short contact time is key: no more than three days. On the other hand, Dogfish Head's Indian Brown Ale dry hops with only 1/2 lb per barrel but keeps it in for 21 days.

One of the big points made in that book is that though hop bittering is pretty well understood, nobody really knows what is going on with aroma. It depends heavily upon hop variety and, for now at least, there is no easy answer as to how to get more/better/etc. aroma in beer. If you find a method that really works for you, remember what hops you used it for because it just may not work for you with a different kind.

since i rarely brew more than once a month, i have gone completely to pellets for the whole process now. i don't like dry hopping with whole leaf unless i get them just before brew day and don't have to store them.

I recently brewed a beer that has the best hop aroma of any I've brewed. I used about 4.5 ounces of hops for 5G of beer with an OG of 1.052. Two ounces of the 4.5 were dry hopped for 3 three days befor bottling. I kept the recipe simple- two types of grain and two hop varieties (Cascade and Chinook). I also racked to secondary before dry hopping which is the only time I rack to secondary in order to get the beer off of the yeast which I've read can absorb some of the hop compounds. I also used Wyeast 1056 (2L starter) which seems to be pretty clean. I'm not sure which of those variables helped or to what extent but I suspect it was a combination of all. A simple recipe with an adequate amount of a neutral yeast strain that did it. The beer had some nice floral, citrus and grapefruit hop flavor and aroma.